CHERRY TWP — When Ashley Brehm was a freshman guard on the Moniteau girls basketball team, she admired Slippery Rock senior Sarah Cessar.

“She always hustled,” Brehm said. “I looked up to her. I always wanted to be like her.”

Now, three years later, Cessar is one of her coaches with the Warriors.

The Moniteau girls basketball program has one of the youngest coaching staffs in the state with 24-year-old head coach Matt Stebbins, 22-year-old Austin Hawk and the 21-year-old Cessar.

The staff came aboard this year following the resignation of Mark Yeager, who stepped down after more than a decade as the Moniteau girls hoop coach.

They are young. But it’s working.

Moniteau is coming off an impressive victory over Cranberry, a team that routed the Warriors in the District 9 Class AA title game last season, and is 9-6 after a slow start.

“We’re very young,” Stebbins said. “But we also have a lot of enthusiasm. We still have that passion for the game and that passion to win.”

Despite being only 24, Stebbins already has an extensive coaching background, working at Slippery Rock University, Mohawk and Slippery Rock High last year as an assistant.

Stebbins’ father, Randy, was a longtime boys basketball coach at Otto-Eldred. Randy Stebbins coached his last game in a wheel chair two days before he died in February of 2004.

“He’s the No. 1 reason why I wanted to be a coach,” Stebbins said.

He called Cessar as soon as he was named the varsity girls basketball coach at Moniteau.

“He said, ‘Hey, do you want to be my assistant coach?’” Cessar said. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh, that would be great.’”

Cessar wasn’t planning on a career in coaching. A junior at Grove City College, she is a standout member of the women’s soccer team at the school, earning first-team all-Presidents’ Athletic Conference honors this fall.

Cessar also is a member of the school’s track and field team in the spring.

This winter, she has shoehorned basketball coaching into her hectic schedule.

“It’s been a bit busy,” Cessar said. “I’m not going to lie.”

But it has been worth it for Cessar, who has been bitten by the coaching bug — hard.

“Some of my best memories are from high school basketball,” she said. “Just being around that again has been great, and helping the younger girls.”

Cessar coaches the junior varsity team and has become the perfect foil for the ultra-intense Stebbins during varsity games and practices.

Stebbins can be seen most nights pacing in front of the Moniteau bench with a towel — a tradition passed down from his late father. Cessar can be seen calming him down when needed.

“She’s an unbelievable complement to me,” Stebbins said. “She’s so calm. She was calm when she played and she is calm when she coaches. And she’s smart. She breaks things down so well for the girls to understand.

“I wanted her because she is such a great role model for these young girls,” Stebbins added. “She is a great asset.”

Brehm said it took awhile for the players to adjust to the change in leadership.

“Honestly, at first, I didn’t know what to expect,” Brehm said. “They brought in the new era of basketball. New techniques. New everything.”

Brehm, who is the only senior on the roster, has tried to bridge the gap between the coaching staff and the younger players.

“The girls all look up to me because I am the only senior,” Brehm said. “We’re all coming together now. We’re adjusting. Change can be hard ... We’re embracing it.”

The coaches also have had to adjust, learning the strengths and weakness of the players.

The biggest adjustment has come on road trips, where sometimes the coaches get confused for students and players.

“We kind of joke about it,” Cessar said. “When we walk into a gym with the girls and we’re all dressed up, sometimes we get strange looks. People are like, ‘Coach?’ And they smile at us. They’re not sure what to make of us.”

“No one really gave us much of a chance, especially with our young coaches,” Brehm said. “They’re sort of underestimating us. We want to prove them wrong.”